Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor Big Hero 6 and make no money from these writings.

Changing Fate

Chapter One

Kagome went over her notes and calculations one last time as she made sure all of the settings on the machine in front of her were exactly as they should be. Entering in the numbers and coordinates that she wanted, she hesitated for a moment when the control screen asked if she wanted to execute the command. She took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. This was the big moment. Years of research, development, and manual labor had lead to this one moment. Well, not this moment exactly, but it was close enough.

After the well closed and shut her off from the past, she'd naturally been depressed about losing such a large part of her life. It was only an offhanded comment by her brother that been meant as a joke that had set her down this path. "Too bad you don't have a time machine, huh?"

She hadn't taken him seriously at first, of course. But the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't seem to get it out of her head. It had started as a small curiosity, but looking up different theories about the science and possibility of time travel had lead to her drowning herself in science for the rest of her middle and high school careers. She'd never been that interested in her science classes before, but once she cared about it, she discovered that she was actually very good at it. Different fields of science came to her very naturally and she excelled. And that was how she'd gotten her chance.

Moving to San Fransokyo and attending the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology on a scholarship had opened up new doors for her. Since the research she was most interested in was often dismissed as a science fiction dream, she applied her major elsewhere in biochemistry. Not that it stopped her from minoring in theoretical physics. Her biochem work with bioluminescence and natural forms of renewable energy actually had a lot of applications and she'd made a small name for herself while collecting a couple of different grants along the way. With what her main research yielded, she copyrighted a few things, selling some, keeping others, and had established a decent income for herself. That was when she really got to work.

She'd been researching and designing a functional time machine for years. There had been lots of tweaking along the way as she ran the numbers again and again and made things more efficient, but she'd quietly gathered the parts that she needed and began to assemble her greatest work in the garage of the small home she rented. It had been a lot of work and there were definitely times that she wanted to quit, but she kept going with the thought that she'd one day get to be where and when she really wanted, the place she felt she was meant to be.

But then things changed. There had been a fire in the Exposition Hall, and the explosion it caused had killed someone. She'd only met him a couple of times, had a few brief conversations here and there, but Tadashi Hamada had been a good man. She'd even helped him develop some ointments and sprays for Baymax that would have a longer lives before expiring and needing to be replaced. Of course that had been part of a trade off for a few spare parts she needed from his lab. But it was plain to see that he had a bright future and that he would help a lot of people in his life. His death had been a tragedy in many ways.

She'd never actually met his younger brother Hiro and she only knew his friends from the lab in passing, but it was clear just how much his death affected them. But then the craziest thing happened. A group of superheroes had risen, and their descriptions fit Hiro and the robotics group a little too well to be coincidence. This team had done a lot of good in the two years since Tadashi's death, so in an indirect way, he was causing good from beyond the grave.

But how much better could the world be, how many people would be benefited, if Tadashi Hamada was still alive? It was only after much internal debate that her sense for the greater good won out, and she started making alterations to her original plans.

She watched the videos taken of the Exposition Hall fire over and over. The time the fire started. The area of origin. Areas that had gone mostly unaffected until the explosion. Time between Tadashi entering the building and the explosion were measured down the the exact second. Her coordinates were precise. Her timing would hopefully be perfect. If everything went smoothly, she should pop into the past for a few brief seconds before she was pulled back to the present. Those few seconds were all she would have. Aside from the small window of time that Tadashi was in the building and alive, the power that her machine was going to use to transport her there and back was massive, and the power source would only last for so long.

Checking herself over one last time, Kagome was satisfied. Her hair was up so that it wouldn't get caught in the fire. Her clothes had been soaked in a fire retardant solution. She had on a mask to keep smoke inhalation to a minimum. She knew the rough distance between where she'd be deposited and where Tadashi would enter the building. All she needed to do was tell her invention to carry out its function and she should be back with the other inventor in no time. As her finger hovered over the key she needed to press, she wondered deep down why relying on her own calculations and knowledge to travel through time was so much harder than relying on magic that she didn't understand at all.

Worst case scenario, the machine would fail halfway through her trip and she'd be caught in the blast as well. Eyes cutting over to her work table, she saw the letter left for whoever might come to check on where she'd gone. Kagome shook her head. She couldn't afford to think like that. She'd put too much time into this. She knew that she'd done everything right. It would work. It had to. Before anymore doubt could creep into her heart, she hit the button and felt a violent pull through space and time before she was stumbling to her hands and knees surrounded by suffocating heat.

Part of her wanted to celebrate her success, but she knew that she didn't have time. Squinting her eyes against the heat and smoke, Kagome stood while gathering her bearings and located the entrance. That was where she saw Tadashi. He was trying to find his way through the flames towards his professor, covering his face with his sleeve and coughing the whole way. Taking action, Kagome sprinted towards the man, avoiding flaming displays and debris along the way. She was almost to him when her watch started beeping and she knew her time was almost up. Pushing all of her strength into her last few steps, she tackled Tadashi, wrapping her arms around his waist, before she felt another violent pull that was this time accompanied by a deafening boom.

She and Tadashi came crashing into a pile on her concrete garage floor before sliding into a table. Unfortunately, some of the air and flames from the explosion had been pulled with them on the return trip and had caught part of her work space on fire.

"No!" Kagome cried as she scrambled to her feet and grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher. It wasn't hard to put out the flames before too much damage was done - thank the gods for renters insurance, not that she knew how she'd explain this for a claim - and she was finally able to let her success sink in. "I did it," she mumbled as she sank to her knees slightly breathless.

A groan from the other side of the room brought her back to the situation and she hurried over to Tadashi's side. Reaching out with a tentative hand, she touched his arm to make sure that he was really actually there. When he looked up at her in a daze, it took him a few moments to take in his new environment. His reaction of panic was unexpected but understandable.

"Where am I?" Tadashi demanded looking around the unfamiliar surroundings. His mind was racing as questions continued to spill out. "What happened? Who are you? Where's the hall and the fire? What about Dr. Callaghan? Hiro? Where's Hiro? Is he okay?"

Quickly uncovering hair and taking it down while taking off the mask that covered half of her face, Kagome looked Tadashi in the eye and took a moment to revel in the fact that she'd actually been successful. "Hi, Tadashi."

Tadashi was quiet for a few seconds before he asked, "Kagome?" He didn't know her well, mostly from their interactions about her help with Baymax, but he knew her face well enough to recognize her. "What happened?" He asked again in a strained voice. His mind was reeling for any possible answers or explanations and he was only drawing a blank. It wasn't a feeling he liked.

Kagome took a breath to explain only to stop and bite her lip. "This...is going to take some explaining." Looking him over with a more examining eye, she noticed that he had a burn along one arm where his jacket had caught fire for a moment. He likely wasn't feeling it yet due to adrenaline, but that would be wearing off soon. "Here," she said as she pushed herself to her feet and held out her hand to help him stand. "Let's go inside and do something about your burns. I'll explain while we do that."

Obviously wary of the strange events, Tadashi's motions were hesitant, but he eventually stood and followed Kagome through a small side door that lead straight into her kitchen. He watched as Kagome grabbed a stool and placed it in front of her sink. She ran some water until she was satisfied with the temperature and plugged the sink to let it fill.

"Take off your jacket, sit down, and put your arm in there," she instructed. "All in all, you could be a lot worse off."

Tadashi was about to ask what she was doing when he noticed the pain in his arm. Looking down, he saw that he did indeed have a burn that needed to be treated.

"Just let the sink fill for a minute and turn it off," Kagome told him. "I'll be right back, okay?" With that she disappeared up a set of stairs that lead to her bedroom on the second floor. Her clothes were dirty and stiff and she needed to get out of them and grab some spare clothes that would hopefully fit Tadashi. It was a good thing that she liked her sweats so baggy.

Waiting not-so-patiently, Tadashi had just turned off the water when he heard Kagome coming back down the steps. He watched her, waiting for any sort of explanation, as she spread a few first aid supplies out on the kitchen table and plopped down in a seat. Rubbing her face, she seemed worn out, but he wasn't going to let this drop until he understood what was going on. "Are you going to answer my questions now?"

"Yes," Kagome said with a deep sigh. "I really wish I had planned out this conversation beforehand, though." Taking a few seconds to get her thoughts in order, she began, "Well, first off, you're at my house, and the Exposition Hall was destroyed in an explosion."

"No," Tadashi shook his head slowly. "I was just there. How did I get here?"

Kagome's nervousness spread across her face. How would he take this news? Would he even believe her? "Um...I really don't know a better way to say this, but the fire in the hall happened two years ago. I've been working on a time machine for a while and once it was ready, I used it to go back to the night of the fire and get you." Pausing, she hesitated before telling him, "Tadashi, you never made it out of that fire. Here, in this world, this timeline, you've been dead for the last two years."

It felt like his heart had stopped cold in his chest. Almost falling off of his stool as his world tilted for a moment, Tadashi took a few deep breaths before looking at Kagome again and saying the only word his mind could conjure up at the moment. "What?"